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and the sermons he hears preached in church: “Ich halte mich...vleissig zu Gottes Gesetze oder zu Gottes Worte, welches in uns gepflantzet ist, welches mit dem Finger Gottes in unser Hertze geschrieben ist.” 684 One phrase here—“Gottes Gesetze oder Gottes Worte”—alerts us to the most important aspect of the Layman’s use of language, and that is what I am terming his practice of speaking indistinctly. It is not that he speaks inarticulately, but rather that he fails to observe the distinctions that form the basis of the work of learned Christians (preachers and theologians). To modern ears, this may seem a strange way to define the work of a theologian, but as I will show below, Luther went so far as to define the theologian as one who distinguishes things correctly. In the phrase just cited, for instance, the Preacher protests, asking how Christ, who is God’s Word, can possibly be the same thing as God’s Law. And although the Bible concedes that even heathens know the Law, surely it is the Word that they are lacking, which therefore cannot be implanted within them? The Layman frequently uses chains of nouns such as these throughout the text, such as: “[die] Wiedergeburth in uns ist Christus inhabitans und ist der Glaube und die Liebe, die Gerechthigkeit, Friede und Seiligkeit.” As mentioned briefly above, the Preacher finds this way of speaking objectionable: “Ein seltzam Theology machestu, solches hab ich von meinen praeceptoribus nie gehört...Es wehre nicht orthotomein recte secare verbum, das ist Gottes Wortt recht scheiden, wenn man also alle Ding vormengen soltte.” 685 This curious word orthotomein—which in Greek means “to cut straight”—is used only once in the New Testament (2 Timothy 2:15): “Beuleissige dich Gotte 684 Weigel, Dialogus, 38. 685 Ibid. 250
zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd vnstrefflichen Erbeiter, der da recht teile [give greek here] das Wort der warheit.” 686 The term has not survived its sixteenth century origins, but its role in the history of Lutheran theology begins with the philological work of Erasmus and Luther. A brief detour into the way that these earlier theologians use the term will help understand Weigel’s critical stance towards orthotomein. Although the Greek passage used the word orthotomein, the literal sense of the word was not carried over to the Vulgate, which read “recte tractare” (to treat or handle correctly). 687 Erasmus, basing himself on the Greek text of his New Testament edition 1516, amended the Latin text to recte secante.” 688 Luther took Erasmus’ correction into his German translation (cited above), adding a gloss in the margin to explain what the metaphor of cutting a text meant to him: “Das er nicht das Gesetz vnd Euangelium in einander menge, sondern treibe das Gesetz, wider die rohen, harten, boesen, vnd werff sie vnter das weltliche Recht oder in ban. Aber die bloeden, betruebten, fromen, troeste er mit dem Euangelio.” (Perhaps it is this marginal note that the Preacher is echoing when he tells the Layman to practice orthotomia rather than mixing things together, vormengen.) Separating the Law from the Gospel, as Luther notes in his gloss, is a fundamental principle of Lutheran theology, serving not only as a guide to interpreting the Bible, but also as the mark of the true theologian and the sign of a real Christian. 689 Correctly 686 In an earlier version of his Bible translation (from 1522), the text reads “schneytten” rather than “teilen”: “Befleyß dich Gotte zuertzeygen eynen bewerten vnd vnuertaddelichen erbeytter, der da recht schneytte das wort der warheyt.” 687 Danneberg, Säkularisierung in den Wissenschaften seit der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Anatomie des Text- Körpers und Natur-Körpers, Vol. 3 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003), 206. 688 Ibid. 689 From Luther’s commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1531): “Is locus de discrimine legis et Evangelii scitu maxime necessarius est, quia continet summam totius Christianae doctrinae. Ideo quisque diligenter discat discernere legem ab Evangelio, non tantum verbis, sed etiam ipso affectu et experientia, 251
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MYSTICISM & CONFESSIONAL CONFLICT I
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ABSTRACT This dissertation investig
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INTRODUCTION • ES IST DIR NICHT B
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mostly undisturbed by his Lutheran
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yet have signalled his assent with
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in a context where action is expect
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Protestant Mysticism: Not a Contrad
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interest, 31 and praised the Theolo
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one can observe the texture of the
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discourse and reasoned debate, or t
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with fragments of Eckhart and Taule
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Dionysius and Eckhart (for differen
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movement, but also profound shifts
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schools, as well as universities wh
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allowed them to cooperate effective
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made clear, would result in dismiss
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and in these external dealings, the
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same laws of physics, but while the
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Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
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as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scriptu
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Alternatively, the so-called four-f
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tzeyger und unterrichter ist ynn di
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fellow Lutherans in studying books
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provoked into action unnecessarily,
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masses for the dead (for instance)
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traditional proof texts about the o
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positive understandings of indiffer
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insofar as their imperfection is ra
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Of these forms of indifference, I f
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to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
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PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
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investigating his early modern read
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was a devilish heretic to others (
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his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
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“unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
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and Jerome (wearing what looks like
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title page, as mentioned above, des
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of a respectable though not fanatic
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himself, but rather cultivated part
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church that Luther, Melanchthon and
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kan”), and specifically the role
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soul become convinced that nothing
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that salvation can be attained thro
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more importantly, a theology that a
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Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
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These role-reversal dialogues were
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As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
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philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
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CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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the relationship between Tauler and
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e “as it was when it was not.”
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Eckhart agree that spiritual povert
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one-of-a-kind thing, or the best ki
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einvaltig stille), an uncreated lig
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e as free of willing and desiring a
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nestling inside the soul, but rathe
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Gelassenheit, das ist, das er nicht
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(necessarily inferior) knowledge pr
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context is that he picks up on Eckh
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he begins to steer the discussion a
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further proof for Weigel’s theory
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understood that the mind cannot pos
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wait in stiller Gelassenheit, recei
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truth as an educated theologian or
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ungewisser”) and finds that his f
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die Blinden an ein ander gehetzett,
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gesagett das ist er selber und ist
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Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
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that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
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indifference that allows Weigel to
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teacher. 366 However, the turning p
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Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
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Murren”)—and they do this “in
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and all the more so since he saw li
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the strength of the intellectual re
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CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE
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demonstrated for Eckhart, I will de
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destroyer that Dionysius is most of
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ears good news to the church.” 39
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points out, with a purification, a
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served as cornerstones in defences
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(Acts 17: 15-34), one of the skepti
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to make the interpretation of these
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Outside the universities, Dionysius
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defiled the “sacred things” by
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other leaders of the Protestant Ref
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valorization of hierarchy per se in
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as well as the with the arguments u
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freedom, but rather obedience. 468
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The primary piece in the compilatio
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It is hardly surprising that Cochla
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it does during the Council of Trent
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for a hierarchical church, seizing
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the ancient teaching”) that “be
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Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
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Aristotle would have been glad to h
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enlightens all great thinkers in ev
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offered Dionysius to the Gelehrtenr
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nine distinct editions of Dionysius
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editions of Greek and Latin classic
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(Turin), and is a reprint of Lefèv
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Page 207 and 208: Weigel concludes that, precisely be
Page 209 and 210: apart, he suggested that true Chris
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Page 213 and 214: Names, as the title suggests, is ba
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Page 217 and 218: of being.” 580 As we will see lat
Page 219 and 220: (“God is a rock”) or even a neg
Page 221 and 222: This is admittedly a nonsensical as
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Page 225 and 226: Dionysius to show that, just as God
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Page 229 and 230: argues that there cannot be more th
Page 231 and 232: dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
Page 233 and 234: Weigel suggests will allow the soul
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Page 237 and 238: Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
Page 239 and 240: alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
Page 241 and 242: Dionysius writes that the summit of
Page 243 and 244: leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
Page 245 and 246: work, Weigel had written explicitly
Page 247 and 248: Luther did not ever use the exact p
Page 249 and 250: as opposed to an office-holder, an
Page 251 and 252: writing. By calling his Layman der
Page 253: Others are loyal to mere men (the P
Page 257 and 258: and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
Page 259 and 260: himself returning gloriously from H
Page 261 and 262: all being. In relinquishing any cre
Page 263 and 264: improve appearances but, because it
Page 265 and 266: than resolve it, because the proble
Page 267 and 268: parcels God, who by rights is supre
Page 269 and 270: Appendix • The Works of Valentin
Page 271 and 272: BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
Page 273 and 274: Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
Page 275 and 276: Eckhart, M. (1993). Werke I (Vol. 1
Page 277 and 278: Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
Page 279 and 280: MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
Page 281 and 282: Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
Page 283 and 284: Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
Page 285 and 286: Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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